Tuesday, June 24, 2008

While a Sunday bombing in Baquba, which killed at least 15 and wounded more than 40, continues the growing trend of guerrilla fighters utilizing women as suicide bombers in Iraq, one element that has been overlooked is the ideological rift this is beginning to represent between insurgents in Iraq and al Qaeda, who the US military and government officials still try to claim are the drivers behind the Sunni insurgency.

Wired's Danger Room blog has covered an argument within al Qaeda over women's roles within the terror network, from women jihadis online, to a CBS news report in which al Qaeda's #2, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, definitively stated in late May that a "a woman's role...is limited to caring for the homes and children of al Qaeda fighters. His speech "created some confusion, because in fact suicide bombings by women seem to be on the rise, at least within the Iraq branch of al Qaeda," and drew responses from women who support al Qaeda such as, "I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest...I am powerless." Though there are many possible reasons behind the ideological disconnect between al Qaeda and AQI the difference is telling regarding the tactics each is willing to employ.

Still, in his profile for TIME Magazine about a young woman who set off a bomb in Anbar Province last summer, Bobbi Ghosh shows the disdain for these women fighters even among extremists who would exploit their willingness to fight. In a video he acquired of her handlers on the scene of the bombing, one stated, "God is great! The stupid woman did it."